The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Figure 78. Osiris, Judge of the Dead (papyrus, Egypt, c. 1275 b.c.). Behind the god stand the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Before him is a lotus, or lily, supporting his grandchildren, the four sons of Horus. Beneath (or beside) him is a lake of sacred water, the divine source of the Nile upon earth (the ultimate origin of which is in heaven). The god holds in his left hand the flail or whip, and in his right the crook. The cornice above is ornamented with a row of twenty-eight sacred uraei, each of which supports a disk. [From The Papyrus of Hunefer, Thebes, Egypt nineteenth Dynasty, around 1275 b.c. — Ed.] E.A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, London: Philip Lee Warner; New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911, vol. I, p. 20.

Figure 79.The Serpent Kheti in the Underworld, Consuming with Fire an Enemy of Osiris (carved alabaster, New Kingdom, Egypt, 1278 b.c.). The arms of the victim are tied behind him. Seven gods preside. This is a detail from a scene representing an area of the Underworld traversed by the Solar Boat in the eighth hour of the night. From the so-called Book of Pylons. [Also known as The Book of Doors. This image is taken from the sarcophagus of Seti I. — Ed.] E.A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, London: Methuen and Co., 1904, vol. I, p. 193.

Figure 80. The Doubles of Ani and His Wife Drinking Water in the Other World (papyrus, Ptolemaic, Egypt, c. 240 b.c.). From The Papyrus of Ani. E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, London: Philip Lee Warner; New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911, vol. II, p. 130.

Figure 81. World-end: Rain Serpent and Tiger-claw Goddess(ink on tree-bark paper, Mayan, Central America, c. a.d. 1200–1250). From a facsimile copy (1898), American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Figure 82. Ragnarök: Fenrir the Wolf Devouring Odin (carved stone, Viking, Britain, c. a.d. 1000). The Andreas Stone with a relief depicting a scene from the legendary Norse poem Ragnarök, “Doomsday of the Gods,” in which the god Othin is eaten by the wolf Fenrir. The raven perches on Othin’s shoulder. Viking, from England (Isle of Man), Manx Museum, Isle of Man, Great Britain. Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY.

Figure 83. Wrestling with Proteus (carved marble, France, a.d. 1723). Aristaeus wrestling with the transformative sea god Proteus. Sébastien Slodtz (a.d. 1655–1726). Palais de Versailles, France.

Figure 84. Earthrise (photograph, lunar orbit, a.d. 1968). Taken by Apollo 8 crewmember Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, showing the Earth seemingly rising above the lunar surface. Note that this phenomenon is only visible from orbit around the Moon. Because of the Moon’s synchronous rotation about the Earth (i.e., the same side of the Moon is always facing the Earth), no Earthrise can be visible from the surface of the Moon. [This image had a profound impact on many who saw it, Joseph Campbell among them. For Campbell’s thoughts on the mythic import of this image, see Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor, Novato, CA: New World Library, 2002, pp. 105 ff. — Ed.]